They [Television] were tagged “punk” because of a time and place, but Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s guitar alchemy in Television was a lot more sophisticated than just rock ’n’ roll with a sneer at 99mph.
Television always fell between scenes.
With the band Television,, Lloyd helped put CBGB on the map, honing in on a mix of art-rock melodies, angular improvisation and antagonist attitude a generation before the current indie-jam movement.
He participated in Television’s 1990s and early-2000s reunion shows, and has toured as a solo act.
Lloyd’s turbulent career and early experiences with Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead in his 2017 memoir, Everything Is Combustible, was released in paperback. He also continues to be an inspiration to younger musicians like Jeff Tweedy—“One year, his wife Susan called me up and flew me into Chicago to give him a guitar lesson, which lasted all day,” he admits—and continues to create at home in Chattanooga, Tenn. “You can change the past in the now. It’s about perception.”
“I never felt the angst necessary to be a punk. I was too young to be a beatnik and too old to be a hippie. I like to say I’m an anthropologist from another planet who is observing human nature and expressing my observations through rock-and-roll.”
BOOK REVIEW:
Everything Is Combustible : Television, CBGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist
Legendary Rock and Roll guitarist. Founding member of Television. Masterful storyteller. Richard Lloyd s acclaimed memoir is now presented in trade paperback format. Written in Lloyd’s inimitable, frequently humorous style, Everything is Combustible chronicles, through vignettes, Lloyd’s colorful early life, starting in Pittsburgh and soon moving to New York City, and then details his teenage travels and encounters with music legends including Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Keith Moon. Lloyd recounts the founding of Television, the band’s rise alongside other bands and personalities in the 1970 s New York music scene, and the legend-making of the unparalleled music venue CBGB.
Everything Is Combustible : Television, CBGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist
Legendary Rock and Roll guitarist. Founding member of Television. Masterful storyteller. Richard Lloyd s acclaimed memoir is now presented in trade paperback format. Written in Lloyd’s inimitable, frequently humorous style, Everything is Combustible chronicles, through vignettes, Lloyd’s colorful early life, starting in Pittsburgh and soon moving to New York City, and then details his teenage travels and encounters with music legends including Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Keith Moon. Lloyd recounts the founding of Television, the band’s rise alongside other bands and personalities in the 1970 s New York music scene, and the legend-making of the unparalleled music venue CBGB.